List of heritage sites now available in book form

Sunday

Nov 29, 2009 at 12:01 AMNov 29, 2009 at 12:16 PM

Think of it as the world's greatest hits.

"The list has grown and grown and grown," says Jethro Lennox, editor of the new World Heritage Sites guide (Firefly/UNESCO, $29.95), which describes 878 sites the United Nations has designated as culturally or environmentally important.

The hefty illustrated volume weighs 4 pounds.

Since the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization began naming the sites in 1978, starting with the Galapagos Islands, travelers have used the list as the ultimate insider recommendation.

Dutch writer Els Slots has a goal of visiting every World Heritage site. She even started a Web site for World Heritage travel fans, www.world heritagesite.org.

Some tour companies cater to such tourists. Canada-based World Heritage Tours (www.worldheritage tours.com) promotes tours in Asia, Europe and the Middle East that focus on World Heritage sites.

"The list has been publicly available online (whc.

unesco.org) but never in a book format like this," says Lennox, the Britain-based coordinator of the joint project by publisher HarperCollins and UNESCO.

The good part about publishing the list in a book is that "it helps countries get funding for their sites, and it helps them take care of them and generally manage them and pass laws to protect them," he says.

"The downside is, more tourists will come to the sites. There is no reason why they should hide, but tourism has to be handled carefully and responsibly."

Newest places

This year 13 sites were added to UNESCO's list:

• Wadden Sea (Germany, the Netherlands): a tidal-basin area and haven to wildlife.

• The Dolomites (Italy): a mountain range in northern Italy that's part of the Alps.

• Stoclet House (Belgium): with 1911 architecture that was a forerunner of Bauhaus and art deco.